Cosmic newsflash: Columnist Kelley Hunter is in New York State's Rhinebeck and Poughkeepsie this week. See schedule at end of article for specifics.

Aug. 20, 2004 - August in Montpelier, Vermont: The living power of myth!
The famed centaur Chiron recently spent a week on the campus green of Vermont College in Montpelier, Vt. Arriving via a resonant wormhole from his mythic hangout on Mount Pelion, Chiron came in the form of a life-size sculpture created by Kentucky artist Ben Fryman, a student in the college's visual arts master's program.
Vermont College of Union Institute and University is the home of alternative education programs based on the philosophy of American educator John Dewey, who promoted experiential as well as intellectual learning -- very Chironic.
Montpelier is the capital of the state that passed the first bottle return law, allows gay union but no highway billboards, and was governed by the recent chironic presidential candidate Howard Dean. Chiron felt right at home, sharing the green with other art installations: a white re-birthing tent and a canvas labyrinth decorated with painted galaxies, copper chimes and celestial brass spheres. Nearby was a tree planted in honor of a former faculty member, a writer on eco-psychology and Hiroshima, who took his own life. All these things are relevant to Chiron, who was performing his usual synchronistic magic, as a crossroads of multilevel connections. I was certainly in a personal time-space warp, visiting a place where I worked for many years.
For those to whom Chiron is new, this wise Greek centaur gave his name to an anomalous object discovered in 1977. Very small, with a quirky orbit that spans the gap between Saturn and Uranus, astronomers were reluctant to call it a planet, but it wasn't in the asteroid belt and it didn't qualify as a comet. So, they made up a new category for Chiron -- the centaur objects. A new door opened in our collective consciousness. Chiron creates a bridge between the personal and transpersonal dimensions. A master teacher and healer, Chiron is a shamanic archetype, a wounded healer who retreated from this world rather than live in immortal pain. At lower latitudes we see him as a constellation, the Centaur, that jumps over the Southern Cross. Its brightest star, Alpha Centauri, is the closest star to our solar system.
As I was standing in awed surprise, appreciating this mythic appearance, the artist himself passed by, of course. I recognized him because Chiron's face was a self-portrait: a kindly, serious, bearded visage. He was holding a woman in his right hand, reminiscent of King Kong, except they were evidently having a agreeable conversation.
Is it a cosmic coincidence that Chiron was crossing Ben's Sun-Venus conjunction when he crafted this sculpture? He was working on issues of masculine power in relation to the feminine, coming from his own recent experiences of being socially rewarded, then frowned upon for expressions of masculine aggression. I imagined he was in sports or the military, but did not have a chance to ask in our short conversation. In any case, the theme feels highly relevant for our times.
This month Chiron in Capricorn is closely opposed Saturn in Cancer. As the pushy patriarchy tightens its fist for control, the gentle yet firm protection of the spiritual warrior offers true homeland security. This opposition strongly suggests a turning point in collective manifestation. Saturn rules linear time, with specific duration and a spatial time-space reality. Chiron alters our experience of time through its heightened energy connection to transpersonal states. As with excited electrons at the subatomic level, new photons of light are thrown off. Virtual particles pop into being for just a moment. If we are looking for these new potentials, we will perceive them with our increasingly subtle awareness, pulling virtual reality into being. What energy we put out will attract resonant response from the cosmos, evoking magic moments of connection, quickening synchronicities.

"Synchronicity, the blue guitar of the soul, making silent music at the crossroads of time, there in the quickening moments of our lives."
-- Robert Grudin

Even before I saw Chiron, I knew I was in for an adventure, a healing quest, on my seasonal travels. I know that Chiron feeling: something has to give, it can't go on like this. It was so tempting to climb up on the statue's back for a ride, to hug his torso and feel the winds blowing through my hair. Fashioned from fiberglass painted to look like clay, Chiron was more fragile than he looked. He was flanked by signs to Keep Off. Ah, well, in the mythic realm, perhaps we can go on a shamanic ride with Chiron as we seek our own wholeness. Look to your Chiron for your quest and your healing. We are all growing out of the box, one way or another, into new crystalline shapes. Have a great ride****

Editor's note: Astrologer Kelley Hunter has Chiron conjunct her Sun and includes this centaur in all her readings. Most of the year she lives on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, where she leads stargazing nights. She is astrologer-in-residence for the Self Centre at Caneel Bay Resort and for the Omega Institute winter programs in the Caribbean. Hunter recently earned her doctoral degree in an interdisciplinary combination of philosophy, cosmology and myth. To be on her e-mail list for monthly articles or for an astrology consultation, write kellhunter@earthlink.net. Explore her Web site here

The story behind the name: Centaurus is one of two constellations said to represent Centaurs, mythical creatures with a human head and torso on top of a horse's body. Centaurus was the name of the first Centaur. The constellation is primarily associated with Chiron (Cheiron), a wise, immortal being who was King of the Centaurs. He was said to be skilled in the healing arts, and to be a scholar and a prophet. From his cave on Mount Pelion, he is said to have raised, tutored, or counselled several persons prominent in Greek mythology, including Jason, Heracles and Asclepius.

There are several stories which explain Chiron's association with this constellation. One legend says that Chiron was the first to identify the constellations and teach them to humans. He placed an image of himself in the sky to help guide Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece. A different story says that Chiron was placed in the sky by Zeus. There are several variants of the story, but the incident common to most is that Chiron was accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow and was in such continuous pain that he offered to give up his immortality. In one version, Heracles was attacked by a group of Centaurs who were enraged that he drank from their communal wine jar. An arrow fired at the attackers hit Chiron instead.

Centaurus
Johannes Hevelius' Centaurus from Uranographia (1690)
In another, Chiron, Achilles and another Centaur, the prophet Pholus, were entertaining Heracles and an arrow (somehow) pierced Chiron's foot. Another version says that Chiron was not so much in pain but just tired of his long life. At this point Chiron's story connects with the legend of Prometheus, the Titan who underwent perpetual torture for stealing fire from the gods to give to humans. Prometheus could not be released from his torture until an immortal being volunteered to give up immortality and go to Tartarus in his place. Someone - there are variants suggesting Zeus, Heracles, or Chiron himself - suggested that Chiron's offer be used to release Prometheus. Zeus honored Chiron with a place in the sky.

Another story suggests that the constellation represents the Centaur Pholus who was honored by Zeus for his skill in prophecy.

The constellation has a large, four-sided shape representing the human head and torso, attached to two legs. Rigel Kentaurus, the triple star system that contains Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun, forms one of the Centaur's feet.